One policeman killed, others wounded as Thai polls open

April 18, 2006

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Suspected Muslim militants ambushed
police guarding a polling station in southern Thailand on
Wednesday, killing one officer and wounding another as voting
began for the upper house Senate.

Separately, a bomb exploded at another polling station in
the same Muslim-dominated province of Narathiwat, wounding two
policemen and a village leader, a police spokesman told
Reuters.

The attacks occurred shortly before nationwide voting began
in a poll analysts say could help resolve the constitutional
chaos left by this month’s inconclusive general election.

More than 1,100 people have been killed in a two-year
separatist insurgency in the three southernmost provinces of
Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala bordering Malaysia.